2018 Summer Sleeper: New England Patriots

Ryan Finley Posted On July 30, 2018

In our annual 32-part Summer Sleeper series, DLF scribes identify a lightly-touted player on each NFL roster who may be worthy of your consideration. Our subjects all have varying levels of “sleeperness,” but each merits a bit of in-depth discussion here in the Premium Content section.

To help everybody along, we are going to be categorizing our sleepers under one of three headings:

Super Deep Sleepers – Players who aren’t roster-worthy in 12-team leagues, but are still worth keeping an eye on.
Deep Sleepers – An end of the roster player who is more often than not on the waiver wire in 12-team leagues.
Sleeper – A likely rostered player who makes for a good trade target. Their startup ADP puts them out of the top-175 or so.

Because we aren’t going to give you the likes of mainstream sleepers, most of these players will undoubtedly fizzle. All we are asking is for you to keep an open mind and perhaps be willing to make room for one of these players on your bench. You never know when the next Adam Thielen is going to spring up. Feel free to add your own thoughts about our choice for the designated sleeper, or nominate one of your own in the comments below.

There are really three things we know about the Patriots year after year: One, we know that the offense will likely be pretty good. I couldn’t remember off the top of my head the last time they had a bad offense, and it turns out you have to go all the way back to Bill Belichick’s first season as coach, the Drew Bledsoe-led team from 2000. That’s a pretty good run. The second thing we know about the Patriots is that they will be led by the future Hall of Famer Tom Brady. It should be no surprise that the Pats’ run as a top offense coincides exactly with Brady taking over in 2001. The third thing we know is…wait a second, I have it right here. Hold on…

Oh yeah, that’s right, we only know two things. And therein lies the problem. Every time it seems like something might be figured out in New England, they shuffle the cards again. “Hey Dion Lewis looked pretty good, I can probably invest in him!” No, you can’t. He’s hanging out with Matt LaFleur now. “At least we know that Brandin Cooks is good, maybe not what we had hoped for, but reliable.” Sure, reliable somewhere else. You need either a Rosetta stone or a Ouija board to figure out what’s going to happen with the Patriots’ skill positions year after year. That’s why when I wrote this same article two years ago, I picked D.J. Foster. It ain’t easy, man.

So with my trusty decoder ring on, what do we know about the Patriots offense this year? We know they drafted Sony Michel in the first round, and expectations are that he may get the majority of the workload. Part of me wants to buy into that, but another part of me cries out that the Patriots haven’t worked that way in the past. So could Mike Gillislee or Rex Burkhead be the play here?

No thanks.

With Rob Gronkowski leaving almost no question marks at tight end, that leaves us with the wide Receiver crew. We have to remember here that both Danny Amendola and the aforementioned Cooks are now with new teams. As if that wasn’t enough turmoil, TB12’s security blanket – Julian Edelman – has a suspension to deal with.

So let’s take a close look at the remaining wideouts, surely there’s a sleeper hidden there. Kenny Britt? Nah, I’ve never bought in to Britt. Neither Chris Hogan nor Jordan Matthews can really be considered sleepers, in my estimation. I’m not a Phillip Dorsett guy, either. I would go with Malcolm Mitchell, who I do like, but trade rumors and missing the first day of camp has me worried. So I guess I have to go with…wait…no. It couldn’t be him, could it? Someone stop me before this gets ugly. I can’t do this…I can’t. But I have no choice. My sleeper pick for the New England Patriots is:

[am4show have=’g1;’ guest_error=’sub_message’ user_error=’sub_message’ ]

Cordarrelle Patterson, WR

Category: Super Deep Sleeper

word image 93

I know, I know, I know. I don’t like it either. But the more I thought about it the more I came back to good old CPat. In my defense, I don’t believe I have ever owned CPat before. So this isn’t some old love affair rekindled for your amusement. I never really bought into the guy before, to be honest. But hear me out on this one.

Patterson has certainly been a fantasy disappointment, but the tools have never been in doubt. He has that rare combo of fantastic speed and really good size, and has a preternatural ability to run with the ball in the open field. With Edelman out, the Patriots need the kind of player who can take a shallow cross and bust it all the way. I love Jordan Matthews as a slot receiver, but I don’t really see that from him. I can most certainly see that from Patterson. Maybe what CPat has been lacking is a quarterback that really knows how and when to get him the ball. You know, the Hall of Fame, Tom Brady type.

And perhaps the best part? You can get him for a song. Here’s a look at a few recent trades (courtesy of our own Trade Finder) involving this once-considered-dynamic dynasty asset.

word image 94

Fourth and fifth-round picks. Some leagues don’t even have picks that deep. The only real cost here is a roster spot. So he’s not a player to carry in leagues with shorter benches, but if you have larger rosters, he might be a better flyer than your sixth tight end. And he’s probably just hanging out on the waiver wire.

Maybe this is foolish. Patterson has duped fantasy owners more than once in his career. Just look at the way his ADP has fallen over the years:

word image 95

He’s at rock bottom, a far cry from his top 20 ADP way back in 2014. And maybe that’s where he needed to end up to finally climb back into our good graces.

Imagine if Patterson can pick up the notoriously difficult Patriots’ playbook, and can get in the good graces of TB12. His 6’2” frame and 4.3 speed in an offense that knows how to get guys open? It really could be magical. And let’s face it, you never really know what’s going to happen with the Patriots. It doesn’t seem to matter when guys are drafted or how much they get paid, the Patriots always use the guys who show results on the field.

Cordarrelle Patterson may be looking at his last real shot to make his career into what most fantasy owners dreamed of, and I think New England, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady could very well be the pieces he needed to get there. Are the chances of Patterson finally paying off very high? Absolutely not, they are probably in the single digits as far as probability. But if he does get it put together, the cost to benefit ratio could be astronomical. That’s just the kind of player I like on the end of my bench.

[/am4show]